A personal emergency alarm system may allow a user to activate an alarm during an emergency situation to call the attention of nearby persons. The personal emergency alarm system may also allow the user to send an assistance request message to a designated recipient. However, in some emergency situations, a user may not safely be able to activate an alarm or send an assistance request message. For example, a person being held against his or her will by a perpetrator may not activate an alarm, or send an assistance request, for fear of immediate retaliation by the perpetrator.
Advances in computing and electronics technology allow for the use of so-called “wearable devices.” A wearable device in the form of a watch, for example, may provide functions beyond simple display of time, such as fitness tracking, notifications, and text messaging. The wearable device may communicate with other devices, such as a smartphone, a tablet computer, or a personal computer, to exchange information related to one or more of its functions. For example, a wearable device in the form of a fitness tracker may communicate with a smartphone to provide information about a user's physical activity, which the smartphone may then process and present to the user. Some features of wearable devices may be enabled/accessed at the wearable device through a user interface. A wearable device in the form of a watch, for example, may notify a user about a new message through a display, and may even allow the user to open the message through a touch-screen interface and read the message on the display.